Rich
by Quicksilvermad
Summary: Theme #001 RICH: Movie-verse, 1st movie. Pepper Potts sometimes forgets just how rich Tony Stark is. So does Tony, for that matter.


******TITLE:** Rich**  
****AUTHOR:** Quicksilvermad**  
****SUMMARY:** Movie-verse. Pepper Potts sometimes forgets just how rich Tony Stark is. So does Tony, for that matter.**  
****GENRE:** General**  
****RATING:** PG13**  
****PAIRING: **Tony/Pepper**  
****DISCLAIMER:** _Iron Man _etc. belong to Marvel Comics et. al.**  
****AUTHOR'S NOTE: **For the 100 Themes Challenge over on LJ (at the Pepperony100 community)

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Pepper always considered Tony to be just another business man with a larger than average Intelligence Quotient. But he _was _rich. Incredibly so. And being rich meant he was famous.

Seeing him dressed in jeans and a T-shirt out in public was enough to turn everyone's heads. Not to mention the fact that it was a Whole Foods he decided to go to.

It didn't really help that Pepper trailed alongside him with her Blackberry in one hand and a hand basket in the other.

Grocery shopping on a pay day at 5:30 in the afternoon was absolutely insane.

"Do we have enough coffee?"

There was that "we" he'd been using a lot more lately.

Tony held up a canister of Maxwell House and gave her that cute clueless face. There were at least a dozen housewives gawking at him over his shoulder—one or two unabashedly staring at his jean-clad ass.

Pepper belatedly remembered those were his holey jeans and her boss had been going around commando lately. She hooked her Blackberry on her belt. "Tony—"

"'Cause I think I went through two pots last night and I know you drink just as much coffee as me, Pepper."

Pepper swung around him, grabbed the Maxwell House from him, dropped it in the basket, and clapped one hand on his shoulder. "Tony! You've got some gawkers."

He glanced over her head at the women and raised an eyebrow as they all scattered. "What?"

"You forgot underwear today. Again. And," she tugged on one of the snapped and frayed belt loops on his hip, "these are your work jeans."

"In other words my ass is showing."

"Those are the words exactly."

Tony clucked his tongue and shoved his hands in his pockets. "You know, there are times now when I wish I was just your average _penniless _genius."

Pepper got him to start walking again and they picked up a few more absolutely non-subtle stalkers. "Now, Tony, you know you would be miserable living like the rest of the world. I know I would be miserable being the PA of some boring old senator or something."

Tony grinned and snagged a box of Cocoa Puffs off the shelf. On a whim, Pepper grabbed Frosted Flakes. _Tony the tiger… _She smirked inwardly.

"I'd be miserable if you worked for some stuffy old senator, too," he teased.

They turned and walked down the soap aisle.

Pepper heard the distinct sound effect of a camera phone "clicking" and felt her protective radar go off. Over by the dish soap stood a woman about her age who was trying to hide her cell phone as fast as humanly possible. Ever since Afghanistan, Tony had a new strict policy about photos—and this broke the rules. Pepper wouldn't stand for it.

"Hey!" she shoved the hand basket into Tony's arms and grabbed the cell phone right out of the woman's purse. She held it up right in front of her nose. "Did you just take a picture of him?"

"Hey! Give me back my goddamn phone, bitch!"

"Pepper—"

She sifted through the photos on the phone and found about twenty others from different aisles in the Whole Foods. One had zoomed in on the hole just along the edge of the back pocket of his jeans. She swiftly deleted all of them. "No photos. How would you like it if someone was following you around the store taking random pictures of you?"

Tony decided it was best to ignore the quarrel and went back to picking out Irish Spring and Lava soap.

The woman snatched her phone back. "Who gives a shit? He's rich, he should be used to it by now. Jesus… I would have made a mint on those."

"_I _happen to give a shit, lady, because all you had to do was _ask."_

Tony turned and leaned against the fragrant wall of soap to watch. It always got more interesting when Pepper started swearing.

"Fuck you," the woman spat.

Pepper lost it and snapped the flimsy Motorola Razer in half.

With the signs of an impending catfight of spectacular standards, Tony intervened. "Hey, now… Let's not fight."

Especially not since they were drawing a rather large crowd.

"Fuck you, too, rich boy. That phone cost me three hundred bucks!"

Tony raised an eyebrow. "Tell you what, if you stop swearing at my friend here, I'll give you enough for a replacement."

Mention giving money away and all of a sudden everything was a-okay. The nosey woman nodded, took the four one hundred dollar bills from Tony's fingers (her own hands were shaking), and ran off.

Tony immediately turned and smiled at Pepper. "You broke a phone for me. With your bare hands."

"Oh God."

"Does this mean we're going steady, or something?" he teased.

Pepper slapped his arm. "Shut up."

"When you punch a reporter does that mean I get to propose?"

"Jesus Christ…"

He slung one arm around her shoulders and laughed. "I really am glad you don't work for some stuffy old senator. Then I'd miss out on _you."_

_That is… Actually pretty damn sweet of him._

Pepper sighed and expelled her anger. "Ditto."

As Tony grabbed a thing of Clorox wipes he gave her another teasing smile. "Who the hell says that anymore?"

"Me and some stuffy old senator."

Tony was rich, alright. But he was rich in other ways as well.

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**END**


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